I have always believed in the philosophy that a good product sells itself. I just assumed that if I made a great website, people would tell their friends, and they would tell their friends, and in no time everyone would be aware of the site. I worked harder on the site in 2007 than I had ever worked before, and then I evaluated the effects of my efforts. What I found was surprising: the number of visitors was no higher than it had been a year before!
I was disappointed by the numbers, but I figured that there must not be a large audience for websites about DOS games. Then I compared my traffic statistics with the top three DOS game sites and found that, on average, they were getting 10 times as many visitors! There is a huge demand for DOS games, but hardly anyone is going to Classic DOS Games to get them!
The mystery didn’t last long: I looked up “DOS games” on Google and the site made #11. That means we just missed being on the first page of results. The difference between page 1 and page 2 could be as much as 1000%. The rankings are based on content and sites linking in, so apparently we just don’t quite make the cut yet.
“Well”, I thought to myself, “there are over 200 games on the site, but the Big 3 have 400 to 500. The site is young, and we’ll catch up.” Then I remembered that one of the reasons why there are so few games is because those other sites include only the latest version of each game, whereas I take the time to locate and archive the entire version history of each game. It’s a ton of work! So I counted all of the versions and found that I had 575 versions of classic games! That’s more than any of the Big 3. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, Classic DOS Games now has more game downloads than any other legal DOS games website in the world! It took me less than three years to get to 575, whereas some of the other sites are 7 years old and are just getting to 500. Well, no wonder! I’ve been working like a dog on this site! Sometimes I feel like the hardest working guy in DOS games. I probably am!
So, you work hard for almost three years and accomplish things that no other website has accomplished. Liberate 19 games, do a bunch of interviews, make a DVD, and collect 575 downloads. That doesn’t include the modern games in the “member games” section, or the utilities. Or the licenses or screenshots or tutorials, or any of the other extras that set the site apart. You work hard, and you get no respect. Rodney Dangerfield: I hear ya, buddy!
Which led me to the question: how do I improve my Google rank by one place? Just one place! Well, there’s not much that I can do about it, so this is where you come in. If you like the site, post a link on your website. That will generate traffic from your visitors, and it will improve Classic DOS Games’ search ranking. It costs you nothing, and it might increase traffic to the site tenfold. Not too shabby!
So, that’s all I have to say about that. I think Classic DOS Games deserves to have the kind of traffic that the other big sites get, and I think it’s going to happen pretty soon, with your help.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the site thus far.